Introduction

LSP (Language Service Provider) is just another name for a subcontractor → a third-party company who has their own XTM Cloud instance which is connected to the Contractor's account and from whom receives translation projects.

At this point, there is an important remark to be made with regard to the two meanings of the term "Subcontractor".

The first one refers to a separate type of subscription in XTM that is simply called “Subcontractor". Clients with this subscription cannot create projects on their account or store their own TM/terminology resources. They can only work on projects received from the Contractor and use the Contractor's resources.

This article, however, describes the possibilities and constraints affecting a "standard” client who receives a translation project from the Contractor, acting as a subcontracting party – a second meaning for that particular term.

LSP project restrictions resulting from Contractor settings

Generally speaking, the LSP can do as much as their Contractor will let them do in a subcontracted project, as it is all set up in the Contractor settings in the main XTM Cloud instance and, in most cases, those settings are nowhere to be changed on the LSP side.

LSP access rights

The most important settings for the LSP are located in an LSP profile on the Contractor instance (Users → LSPs → LSP editor → Access rights).

Here the Contractor can, for example, specify:

• customers to whose projects the LSP can be assigned,

• LSP level of access to LQA results and reports (see Types of LQA report – description and use case for more information);

• customers whose terminology resources the Contractor can permit the LSP to use (if selected at the project creation stage),

• extent of terminology management: what the LSP can actually do with Contractor terminology,

• customers whose translation memory (TM) resources the Contractor can permit the LSP to use (if selected at the project creation stage),

• extent of translation memory (TM) management: what the LSP can actually do with Contractor TM.

Workflow and access

The second place in which the LSP rights are defined is the Contractor global settings (Configuration → Settings → Translation → Workflow and access).

The naming convention for some of the sections it contains might seem unclear (for example, Linguist general options) but they do apply for LSPs as well. In other words, all the settings displayed there also apply for LSPs as, in the context of assigning actors to a workflow, the term "linguist" also refers to subcontractors. The Linguist metadata access section is the only section in which a distinction is made between "Linguists" (internal linguists) and LSPs (subcontractors).

The only other option that has been designed specifically for LSPs is Show Customer name on LSP account in the Linguist general options section.

Project settings

What can the LSP not do?

The vast majority of the options relating to a specific project that are configured during its creation apply for the LSP (project creation stage): the sections such as:

• General information (i.e. customer, project template),

• Translation (i.e. source language and target languages, filter template, QA profile, joining files, segment filter profile, pre-processing, subject matter, source files, additional files (reference material, segment ID images)),

• Settings (i.e. customer TM and terminology resources, anonymization, disabling term decoration, using not approved memory, marking certain segments as “locked”, monitoring target length);

• Machine translation (all settings),

• Tag settings (all settings).

The settings contained in the above-mentioned sections can only be set or adjusted by the Contractor, and the LSP cannot change them in any way.

There are some options in the Project Editor → General info section of a subcontracted project on the LSP side (if enabled in the global settings by the LSP) which seem to be available for selection, but any changes to them will have no effect:

• Translation memory settings: Use not approved memory, Hide repeated segments, Mark segments as locked when:, Disable term decoration, Allow editing of ICE segments;

• Machine translation settings.

What can the LSP do?

There are some options in the Project Editor → General info section of a subcontracted project on the LSP side (if enabled in the global settings by the LSP) that are available for selection/editing. However, they are primarily internal information/guidelines and have no direct effect on the project as a whole (the Contractor settings take priority):

• Project name,

• Description,

• Reference ID,

• Payment status,

• Proposal approval status,

• Project Manager,

• Custom fields,

• Due dates (i.e. workflow start date, workflow due date, delivery due date);

As for due dates, the system will inform the LSP in Workflow editor about any discrepancies in due dates applied to workflow steps between the Contractor and the LSP:

Other than that, the LSP can also add their own workflow steps to a project workflow.

LSP project restrictions independent of Contractor settings

No matter what settings have been specified by the Contractor, the LSP also faces other restrictions that are set by default and expected in the case of subcontracted projects.

1. The LSP does not have access to the Project editor → Estimates section.

2. The LSP cannot reanalyze projects.

3. The LSP cannot archive projects.

4. The LSP has the option to delete the project on their side but cannot delete TM that they created within the framework of this project.

5. The LSP cannot force projects to be finished/re-opened.

6. The LSP cannot approve ICE and Leveraged matches.

7. The LSP cannot download a project (general) LQA report (see Types of LQA report – description and use case for more information).

8. The LSP does not have access to one of the XTM Workbench segment filters: Modification: Any updates to target, status or comments (see Changing the filter view – modification: Any updates to target, status or comments for more information).

Restriction for Contractors

The only restriction that appears on the Contractor side is that once they assign an LSP to a particular workflow step, they can neither remove nor modify that entire workflow in the Workflow editor. They can only add new workflow steps, and change blocking mechanism criteria between existing steps.